Pre-flop: Well, you don't have to tell me. I know. But folding is boring.

Flop: So UTG checked. He probably missed that flop. Had he hit it, he would not have trusted anybody else to bet for him. I can represent both a trey and a queen here - and overpairs. Besides, I do have a queen.

My opponent on the button goes into the tank before he calls my bet.

Turn: The pot is getting big. Now I think that the only way for him of having me beat is to have 33 in the hole which is pretty unlikely - and better queens, which are very likely, from which he is extracting maximum value using his position. Of course, he could have a few A3s too. It is still mostly good queens that worries me.

The options: Bet, and quite possibly face a raise? I'd have to fold. Also, if I bet and he calls, I have no real value bet or bluff left in the arsenal. Again, I'd expose myself to a value bet or bluff on his part.

My conclusion was that I could push him off a better queen here more often than not with a check-raise. If he has a smaller pair (say 99), then there wouldn't be more value in check-calling because he might not fire the river with that. He might, as I mentioned, also bluff me off with a river barrel.

As playedPostflop: Good example how to overplay your TP holding.
Hard to comment this even cause this is clearly a overplay here.

Still, you do comment by hinting that my play sucks. But you don't tell me why, except for preflop which I explicitely was not asking about.

I am not playing my weak top pair here. I am trying to bluff him off the hand, specifically a better Q and stopping a bluff from him. This is what I'm asking about. What I actually hold is less important except that my Q beats his medium pp that I don't want him to be able to use to bluff me off my hand. I still want value from these.

As playedPostflop: Good example how to overplay your TP holding.
Hard to comment this even cause this is clearly a overplay here.

Still, you do comment by hinting that my play sucks. But you don't tell me why, except for preflop which I explicitely was not asking about.

I am not playing my weak top pair here. I am trying to bluff him off the hand, specifically a better Q and stopping a bluff from him. This is what I'm asking about. What I actually hold is less important except that my Q beats his medium pp that I don't want him to be able to use to bluff me off my hand. I still want value from these.

/Johan =

Bluffing a better hand off the pot? You wont really see that.
What do you think he folds? What can you represent that he really will think of folding Qx?

I can represent everything the board lets me represent. I was playing quite wild and sometimes tricky on the early streets, but as I mentioned, when the real money went in, I usually had what I represented, and this was deep into the session. He was very aggressive, but not stupid.

Besides, his turn bet smelled a little of "please let us see the river cheaply".

If you were him, would you have called a (slightly bigger than pot) raise on turn with AQ/KQ/QJ? With AA/KK (which he is unlikely to have).

He might also start leveling himself. He might decide hits pp is good at this point, but this not a main ingredient, it's just a fringe benefit.

I accept your argument though. The average player at this stake will not let top pair go for a measly buy-in. The problem is to sort them out from the good players, that will let go, or only occasionally call down, but probably not often enough. If a player loses his stack with top pair, I'll take a note. Against him - no big bluffs and no semi-bluffs unless he checks.

I should mention too that I'm sometimes Gibraltars Rock preflop as well. It depends on my mood, the table, and the stacks
. If the stacks are very deep, the opponents bad, and I have position, I'll play most hands, even for a raise. (That's how I lost a 1200 BB pot earlier this session. Small nut straight on the turn, paired river.)